“Is it September or December?” one might ask upon looking at Vanity Fair‘s latest cover. The image, photographed by Mario Testino, features a mostly nude Natalia Vodianova draped in fur, with the word “Style” emblazoned across the front in red ribbon. The typography invokes a holiday feeling — maybe the mag is saying a partially nude Natalia is like Christmas coming three months early? We can only guess.

Image: Vanity Fair

Many forum members seemed put off by the amount of Photoshop used on the image. “Boring & lifeless. It looks like it was produced between flights in an airport lounge. And as a big Natalia fan, I’m almost insulted by that poor Photoshop. Testino, why?” wrote Royal-Galliano.

Plenty of folks were just happy to see a model on the cover of an American magazine, a rare sight these days. “At least we have a model on another US September cover and it’s always a pleasure to see Natalia; even though another snapper could have made this sub-par portrait classic! Sad,” wrote Fiercification.

For nightclubbing, the casting choice was a little confusing: “I don’t understand why she’s on the cover but at least it’s not a dead celebrity or a paparazzi shot.”

But not everyone was disappointed by this effort, with testinofan writing in support of the work of his beloved photog, “Loveeed fierce cover!!!!”

HelaFav5 seemed to be feeling the image as well, calling it “Testino’s best work recently.”

And though the ribbon lettering was a problem for some, cottonmouth13 didn’t seem to be bothered by it: “For some reason, I like it. Especially how the word ‘Style’ was written. Although it feels like a winter cover rather than a fall one. But you have Natalia here looking gorgeous. Definitely an unexpected choice and I love that (Praise the good Lord it’s not a dead celebrity).”

Jihan Forbes spends her days tirelessly writing and her work has been featured on Fashionista, XOJane, The Cut and more. She lives in Harlem, but will always be a Bronx girl. Send her an e-mail sometime.